Kitchener’s army

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 Lord Kitchener made emotional appeals to the young men of Britain to do their patriotic duty in signing up to fight Germany. At Exeter as elsewhere they volunteered in great numbers.

Scenes such as that shown on the postcard were the prelude to one of the great tragedies of British history: very large numbers of those who volunteered in 1914 were the troops who were killed and maimed in the Somme in 1916.

Acknowledgments: RAM Museum